Hey Arnold! Season 6: Miriam Under the Table
by Cre8ivelybankrupt87
Summary: In this mid season finale, Big Bob leaves Helga alone with Miriam for three days, and certain family issues that have gone unspoken for far too long rise to the surface. Helga finds nothing edible in the house but one of Miriam's 'smoothies,' and things go downhill from there. WARNING: Contains a scene of underage drinking and darker than usual HA! themes.
1. Chapter 1: I Am Woman, Hear Me Snore

Despair hung over the Pataki household, or rather the failing beeper emporium store they now lived in, like a raincloud. The family had always been able to fool themselves into finding moments of happiness despite their deep dysfunction, up until their business had fallen into sharp decline, thus eclipsing the one thing they had going for them in the form of upper middle class stability. On one typically unpleasant evening at the store, young Helga sat at the diner table reading a magazine and trying her best to ignore her loudmouth father shouting at someone over the phone.

"Look, I'm sinking every last dime into this stinking trip, so this had all better go through!" Big Bob shouted, "Don't give me that. And you'd better have some good news for me when I get there!" He ended the call and grumbled, "Stupid little weasel. No way I'm letting this deal fall through."

"You're going to be gone how long, dad?" Helga asked, now finding him impossible to ignore.

"Three days." Bob replied.

Helga stood up in protest, shouting, "You're leaving me alone with Miriam for three days in this dump?"

"Hey! Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!" Bob pointed at her, "It'll be worth it. This deal could put us back on the map, and then this dump will be back to its former glory, Olga."

Helga smacked herself in the face, annoyed with her father's constant habit of calling her by her sister's name, "How are you still doing that… look, it's great that you're trying to salvage the business but… last time you left me alone with mom for a few days I nearly starved to death."

"Relax, your mother can manage just fine." Bob waved his hand dismissively, "Right Miriam?"

Miriam, with her head down on the table and watering at the mouth managed to make only a faint noise sounding vaguely like, "Um… huh?"

"See? You'll be fine." Bob smiled, as he grabbed his suitcase and headed for the door, "Bye Miriam, bye Olga."

"Bye bye, Bob." Helga muttered as her father slammed the door behind him, "Hmpf. Bob. What a paragon of parenthood… seriously why can't he ever just once think about someone but himself? Like me?"

Helga turned to Miriam and scowled, seeing her passed out and breathing loudly.

"Miriam!" she shouted, "Hey! What's the dinner plan?"

Despite the high volume of her shouting, Helga failed to get any response from her mother, who was now snoring soundly.

"Ugh…" Helga moaned, then went to check the cabinets and fridge only to find them empty. In the fridge she did see a small handwritten note which she picked up and read, "'IOU dinner.' Well that's just great… Bob is bailing on us for a few days, the house is void of food and you've decided to call it a night. What am I supposed to eat?"

Something out of the corner of Helga's eye caught her attention. Glancing to the counter on her right she saw Miriam's blender, still half full with whatever smoothie concoction she had whipped up earlier.

"Guess that'll have to do." she said, waltzing over to the blender, and looking over the ingredients sitting nearby, "Fruit, tabasco, and whatever that other liquid stuff is. Guess I'll try your nectar of life, mom."

Helga poured herself a glass of the reddish colored blend and took a sip.

"Hmm, sweet…" she thought to herself. "That's actually pretty good… kind of a bitter aftertaste but…"

Several sips later Helga found all of her worries and anxieties were strangely starting to melt away, as she felt a strange warm feeling envelop her. She poured herself another glass and downed it in one gulp, now starting to feel tingly all over. She hadn't felt this relaxed and carefree since her last dental procedure, with the aid of laughing gas naturally. For one of a few times in her rather frustrating life, she came over feeling very silly and whimsical all of a sudden. Dancing around the room with her glass in hand she stopped by her unconscious mother.

"Oh man! I can see why you love these things so much… they just make you feel so… carefree!" Helga laughed uncontrollably, "So... so… oh man these aren't "smoothies" are they… oh well. I'm too young to know better. La, la, laaaaa."

Helga waltzed back over to the blender, grabbed the container and proceeded to drink what was left of it. With a broad silly grin Helga continued dancing around the room, when suddenly through the doors she saw none other than her beloved Arnold burst through riding atop a white stallion. Arnold wore a suit of armor and his long golden hair blew majestically in the wind. No longer in the Beeper Emporium, Helga found herself standing in a flowery field out in the middle of the Swiss mountains, wearing an Alpine dress and sporting flowers in her braided hair. Arnold trotted over her atop his horse and offered her a hand. Allowing herself to be swept off her feat by her beloved football headed love god, she clung to his waist from behind as they rode off into the sunset. Wings sprouted from the horse and together they flew off over the horizon. She looked down below her and saw a chorus of giant blenders all singing harmoniously together as she stroked Arnold's hair and cooed. As they flew off into the sunset, the world around her grew darker and darker, until at last all the light in the world had vanished and she felt herself falling. Arnold reached for her but could not catch her as she fell from the horse and fell down and down into the black abyss.

"Helga!" He cried out, "Helga!"

She could hear him calling her name continuously, and slowly Arnold's voice became more and more feminine sounding.

"Helga? Helga?" the voice urged her, but Helga couldn't see anything. The voice continued to call her name, and suddenly Helga could feel her whole body being shaken by a pair of hands, "Helga? Helga?"

"Muh… where am I?" Helga sat up at last, and found herself on the cold floor of the beeper emporium once again. Her vision was still slightly blurred, and she felt as if she had been hit by a truck.

"Well I just found you lying on the floor and I couldn't wake you up for the longest time… wha… what happened, honey?" her mother Miriam asked.

" I dunno… last thing I remember I was having the rest of your smoothie and I just got a little… dizzy…"

Miriam's eyes went wide and her jaw dropped. Helga regarded her mother as she appeared to be scrambling to find words.

"Oh… Helga, you… you shouldn't drink those…" Miriam sputtered.

Helga rubbed her eyes and moaned, "Yeah, well you were asleep on the couch, there was no other food in the house and I was hungry. It had to do. And it was a little… strong…"

"But those have… well they're how mommy takes her um, medicine." Miriam said.

"You're on medication?" Helga scoffed, "For what? Chronic scatterbrainedness?"

Miriam looked at her blankly, sad resignation all over her face as she muttered, "Uh, yeah sure… uh, that… oh look at the time, Helga. You're gonna be late for school."

"Mom?" Helga asked.

"What, Helga?" Miriam murmured.

"There's nothing you want to explain here?" Helga asked.

"About what, honey?"  
"I think we're beyond the point of coyness, Miriam." Helga said, standing up, "I'm not Olga. Cut the crap. Oh… my head…" Helga felt at her forehead as it throbbed in pain.

Miriam's eyes darted back and forth and she said, "Well Helga, sometimes when grownups have a long day or just have a lot on their minds they need to uh… get it off their minds."

"Is it worth the headache afterwards?" Helga moaned.

"Not really…" Miriam sighed, "But mommy still needs her medicine to get through the day… speaking of which, it's a school day, right dear? You'd better get moving…"

"Mom…" Helga said slowly, "What did I drink?"

Miriam stayed silent for a moment. The look between her and her daughter said everything, even though she was dodging the answer.

"You know, that was uh… that was a very naughty thing to do, drinking that." Miriam tried to put on a stern motherly act, "I could… I could ground you for that… or something…"

Helga just glared straight back at Miriam, completely unimpressed by the empty threat.

"Sure, that's what some kind of responsible parent might do." Helga said, "But what are you going to do?"

Her mother looked at her sadly, "This never happened… alright?" Miriam said at last.

"Agreed." Helga sighed, "And mom?"

"Uh, yeah Helga?" Miriam asked.

"Not that I don't appreciate you and me uh, bonding as it were, but I think you ought to seek out some sorta… help…" Helga insisted.

"Aw no, honey, this is how it always is and I'm just fine…" Miriam shrugged her off. "I'm fine, you're fine, everything's gonna be just fine, honey. Everything's normal."

"Yeah but what about me?" Helga asked, "What about when you can't even get groceries? I'm only twelve mom… I can't run the house… or lack of house…"

Miriam quickly tired to mitigate the situation, and adopted a very optimistic and cheerful tone, "You know Helga, you're right… today I'm gonna go grocery shopping and it'll all be better."

"I dunno…" Helga said doubtfully.

Her mother placed her hands upon her daughter's shoulders and smiled at her reassuringly, saying, "Helga, trust me. From now on things are going to be different. Today's a new day."


	2. Chapter 2: Brand New Day, Same Old Story

The very next night, Helga glared in disgust at her mother, who was once again lying passed out, drooling onto the kitchen table and snoring loudly. Nearby her sat a glass, and nearby that sat her blender, and similarly to last night its contents were the only edible thing in the store. Miriam had of course not made good on her promise to go grocery shopping. Helga couldn't say she as surprised, and didn't even find it worth it to be disappointed anymore.

"Not having that again…" Helga muttered, pushing the blender away.

Just then, none other than her older sister Olga burst through the front door of the store, carrying with her several brown paper bags of groceries.

"Good evening, baby sister!" she cooed in her usual dreamily contented voice, "Surprise! I've brought dinner for us all!"

Helga had never been so relieved to see her insipidly annoying sister in all her life. "Hey, thanks Olga." she said, "Sounds great. But um, as you can see Miriam has decided to turn in early."

Olga looked at Miriam and briefly covered her mouth in surprise, but then gave a very forced looking smile and laughed.

"Oh mommy, she must have worked so hard all day to come over so sleepy." she waltzed over and rubbed her mother's shoulder, "Doesn't she look peaceful?"

Miriam let out a loud snore and muttered something unintelligible in her sleep.

"Peaceful as a lumber mill…" Helga muttered.

"I'll just get started on dinner." Olga said as she placed her grocery bags on the counter, "Be a dear and help me scalp the potatoes, Helga."

"Uh huh." Helga relented, "Sure. Whatever."

Helga began washing the potatoes and when she had finished started scalping them as Olga prepared the main course. All the while Olga hummed a happy tune to herself, Helga looked back and forth between Miriam and her big sister.  
"So… are we gonna talk about this?" Helga asked.

"Talk about what?" Olga said willfully obliviously.

"The pink elephant in the room." Helga said, starting to nod her head in Miriam's direction.

"Pink?" Olga asked in a pho innocent voice, "Are you… an elephant, Helga?" She gestured to Helga's pink jumper as Helga frowned.

"Oh criminey, Olga don't play dumb, you're class valedictorian for crying out loud! You know exactly what I'm talking about!" Helga shouted, finally losing her already limited patience.

"Helga, I'm certain I don't know what you're so angry about." Olga said, looking away as she chopped carrots increasingly vigorously.

"You never do…" Helga groaned, "But this one should be screaming at you in the face on its own without me having to spell it out."

"Well, I did win the all city spelling bee back when I was about your age, so you needn't-"

"Olga!" Helga shouted and stamped her foot, "Focus! Miriam! What are we going to do?"

"For… mother's day?" Olga said, turning away from her chopping and looking at Helga with a very forced smile.

"Are you still playing dumb or is this just actual willful ignorance now?" Helga growled.

"Helga, you can't call me ignorant!" Olga pouted, "I go to college!"

"Uh huh, ever dip into any smoothies in college?" Helga said as she crossed her arms, "Y'know, the kind Miriam likes?"

"Oh yes, actually…" Olga said, reminiscing, "There was the most delightful little cafe that served incredibly healthy smoothies. I admit, I did get a little addicted for a while but eventually I-"

Fed up, Helga grabbed Olga by her arms and squeezed with all her might.

"Helga!" Olga squeaked, "You're hurting me… you're so oddly… strong for your size…"

At last, Helga spoke the words that for the longest time no one in the Pataki family dared utter, "Olga? Miriam. Has. A. Drinking. Problem."

A long hush fell over the room. The two sisters stared at one another without blinking for what seemed like a full minute. Olga's eye started to twitch and she forced another artificial smile.

Olga looked off into space and as if speaking into a non-existent camera said, "Are we allowed to say that aloud?" She glanced back at Helga, "Oh Helga, you're only nine, who told you about the dangers of-"

"I'M TWELVE, YOU TWIT!" Helga bellowed, shaking her sister violently. "WHY DOES NO ONE IN THIS STUPID FAMILY REMEMBER THIS?"

Olga finally wrestled herself free from her sister's vice grip and said, "Oh Helga, don't be silly."

Helga stomped over to Miriam and picked up her glass.

"Then I guess there's no harm then if I just have a sip of this… down the hatch." she said, raising the glass to her mouth.

"Helga, don't!" Olga leapt over and swiped the glass from her hand, "You're too young… to… be swapping germs with mommy…"

"Olga!" Helga shouted.

Olga's eyes welled with tears, and finally she burst out crying, "Oh Helga… I know it's true… it has been for so long…"

"You've got a good decade on me… was it always like this?" Helga asked.

"Well, I think it started just after you were born, baby sister…" Olga mused, no longer sounding distraught.

"Oh criminey…" Helga muttered.

The next day at PS118, all the kids gathered into the cafeteria for lunch as they did every day. Arnold sat at a table with his pal Gerald as they munched on their sandwiches, enjoying some solace from the rigorous academic schedule of the sixth grade. Suddenly a girl in pink sat down at their table and began barking orders.

"Arnold?" Helga pointed a finger in his face, "I'm coming over for dinner tonight."

"Oh… you are?" Arnold asked, "Did my mom and dad invite you? And forget to tell me again?"

"Nope." Helga shook her head, "This time I'm just gracing you with my presence cuz I'm feeling generous. No need to thank me."  
"Huh?" Arnold asked in confusion.

Helga sighed, and dropped her tough obnoxious act, "Ugh… it's Miriam. Bob left for a few days and I'm stuck alone in the house with her and the occasional Olga… and most notably no food."

"Oh." Arnold said understandingly, "Well, sure. I'll tell mom and dad you're coming. They're always happy to have you."

"Oh Arnold, what did I ever do to deserve you?" she said in a dreamy voice, then immediately resumed her usual caustic tone, "Oh, right. Everything. Lucky you."

"Yeah, lucky me…" Arnold sighed.


	3. Chapter 3: Olga Snaps

Time marched on at turtle speed, until at last the school bell rang, sending the students fleeing from the building with eager excitement. Arnold wandered back to the boarding house, whereupon he gathered his family together, and tried to explain Helga's complicated predicament to his parents and grandparents.

"And she's all on her own with her mom, and her mom isn't exactly… well, she's sort of forgetful." Arnold said.

Stella sighed, "I'm really starting to worry about them. Her mom seems like a good woman but… she just seems kind of… I don't know, broken. And I think that's taking a toll on poor Helga."

"Stella…" Miles said, "What do you think we should do?"

"Well, for a start let's just give her a good meal." Stella said, "And remind her she's always welcome here if she needs a safe place to be."

"Can we make something, I don't know… big? I don't think she's had a full meal all week." Arnold suggested.

"For Lady Eleanor?" Grandma Gertie asked, "Of course! All hands on deck! Man the kitchen! Slaughter the fattened pig!"

Abner the pig let loose a squeal of terror and ran from the room.

"Present company excluded, Abner!" Gertie laughed.

"Maybe she should stay the night," Stella said, "I really don't like her staying in that run down store…"

"I don't think we should be encouraging co-ed sleepovers…" Grandpa said. "Especially with that one."

"Dad…" Miles groaned, "They're just kids."

"Ho ho, you haven't heard the poetry that Pataki kid comes up with…" Grandpa said, glancing at Arnold, "That pink book incident was pretty telling, huh 'hot lips?'"

"Grandpa, we don't know that was… hers… for certain," Arnold said unconvincingly, recalling the time Helga's diary had accidentally ended up in his hands. In retrospect he had a hard time believing he hadn't figured out it was hers.

"Regardless, we'll just be sure to show her a good time," Stella said. "But I'm taking that kid under my wing if things don't turn around in that house soon…"

Across the city from where the Shortmans sat discussing her, Helga walked through the door of the beeper emporium, and heard the unusual sound of merry laughter. As she stepped into the kitchen, to her surprise she saw both Miriam and Olga cutting vegetables and laughing together.

"Oh, Helga," Miriam said, "Your sister came for a surprise visit, isn't that wonderful?"

"Yeah," Helga said, "She got here last night. I was there. Ring any bells?"

"Wha? Oh, honey that was… what?" Miriam sputtered, clearly possessing no memory of Olga's arrival the night before.

"This is going to be so much fun, just the three of us Pataki ladies." Olga sighed happily, "It's been so long since we three girls just had a little family time together."

"Very long," Helga murmured, "I don't think I can remember the last time the three of us bonded… oh wait, that's why. That sort of thing never happens."

Olga looked at Helga and shook her head, "Oh, Helga. Don't be such a little sourpuss. Last night you were all grumpy that mommy was asleep, but now look. We're all here and this is going to be a nice, pleasant evening here at Chez Pataki."

The look in Olga's eyes had always been somewhat blank and distracted, as if she were trying to see the world through some rose-tinted glasses and ignore reality, but now she looked positively robotic. It was almost unnerving how artificially happy she was trying to appear. She turned back to her cooking, gleefully singing something to herself as Miriam remained quiet. No one wanted to address it, but the tension in the room was about to boil over. Helga finally spoke up.

"I'm having dinner at Arnold's." she said.

Olga and Miriam turned and looked at her.

"But Helga, we… we spent all afternoon working on this for all three of us…" Miriam said, "We were gonna have a girls night. Spend some quality time together."

"I've already spent enough quality time with you, the past two nights, Miriam." Helga snapped, "Sorry if you don't remember any of it. I think you two will be just fine on your own. Trust me, you won't even notice I'm gone."

"But Helga…" Miriam protested impotently.

"No more feeble attempts at bonding. You're only putting on a good show for Olga," Helga said, "I'm gonna go be with a family that gives a crap if I live or die."

"Helga!" Olga wailed, "That's not… very nice."

"Honey, why are you so upset?" Miriam asked.

"Why? Oh, if you don't know by now I'll spare you the details. But I'm glad you're always able to pull yourself together for the sake of Princess Olga," Helga growled, "Sorry I'm never worth staying off the smoothies for!"

Without another word, Helga stormed out the door and slammed it behind her. Both Miriam and Olga looked at one another with concerned eyes, neither of them sure what to do. Dropping what she was doing, Olga abruptly gave chase.

"Helga!" Olga cried, "Helga, wait!"

Olga dashed out the door in pursuit of her sister, leaving Miriam standing in a stunned daze. Everything Helga said to her started to sink in. For a few blissful hours she had managed to forget her troubles, thanks to her eldest daughter, who never failed to fill her heart with joy. She felt guilty admitting to herself that Olga really was her only reliable source of joy in life, apart from her smoothies.

The guilt only worsened when she realized that Helga didn't inspire the same happiness in her. With everything in her life rapidly collapsing around her, she had tried to shut out everything in her life that caused her pain, and unfortunately Helga often fell into that category. She had made a few feeble attempts to bond with her little girl over the years, but had made little progress, and always ended up back at square one.

While she loved her daughter dearly, she told herself, the two of them had just never clicked, and so Miriam always found it easier just to stay in her own world. Things had only gotten harder since they'd lost their house, and both Bob and Helga had become more surly than ever, leaving Miriam with only one outlet to forget their misery. With that in mind, Miriam gave into temptation once again, and reached for her blender and gathered several bottles of ingredients.

Miriam glanced at her blender, her oldest and dearest friend, that she had ignored all day with Olga around. Using some twisted form of logic, she decided the make things fair for both the girls and not show any favoritism. She was going to whip up the strongest smoothie she'd ever concocted, and that would make everything better. Smoothies always made everything better for a little while.

Helga stormed down the street towards Arnold's house, but suddenly she heard her name from the last voice she wanted to hear it from.

"Helga!" Olga ran up behind her, "Baby sister! Stop! Wait, I… I need to talk to you." She panted, heaving over from her exertion.

"Come on Olga, it was like fifty feet…" Helga moaned, "I'm going to Arnold's, and having dinner with his family. You know, an actual functioning one. The only one that even half cares about me."  
"That's not true, Helga!" Olga clasped her hands together as if about to beg, "We do care… really we do. Or at least I do."

Helga crossed her arms, then turned away with a haughty, "Hmpf."

"Helga!" Olga shouted in a tone of voice Helga had never heard from her before. It sounded so serious and authoritative coming from Olga, but most strangely it sounded mature. As Helga looked back at her sister, she noticed the normally vacant somewhat robotic look in Olga's eyes had gone, and she looked completely real in a way she had rarely seen.

"Come with me." Olga said sternly, but not unkindly, "You and I are going to… talk."

Helga wanted nothing less than to talk with Olga, but something about her tone of voice and general demeanor in this moment intrigued her. Almost as if the veil had fallen, and she was meeting her sister for the very first time, and not the coy windup doll she had always known.

"Alright." Helga relented, and the two sisters diverged from the path to Arnold's house and took a walk along the river wharf.

As time marched on at the Shortman house, Arnold grew anxious as he sat doing his homework in his room, not sure when or if Helga was even going to show up. Grandma and Miles were hard at work in the kitchen, and dinner was smelling good so it would be a shame for her to miss out. He had tried calling her house earlier, but had gotten no answer. Arnold headed downstairs and pulled on his coat.

"Mom!" Arnold called out as he reached the foyer. Stella poked her head out of the dining room.

"What is it Arnold?" she asked.

"I'm gonna run over to Helga's." Arnold said, "Just walk her over."

"Such a gentleman." Stella smiled, "Go on. Dinner should be ready in a little bit."

"Cool." Arnold said, "I'll be back soon."

As he ran out the door, followed by Abner and a parade of other animals, Stella watched him go and smiled as Grandpa appeared behind her.

"Just can't keep those two apart." she fawned, "It's so sweet…"

"Not that sweet…" Grandpa mumbled, "Wait'll you see what she grows into…"


	4. Chapter 4: O Sister, Where Art Thou?

**I have to give credit to genaminna and this amazing piece of fan art that inspired part of this chapter. I tried not to just directly steal the story behind it, but I did take some inspiration so do check it out (after reading this if you want to avoid spoilers…)**

**genaminna/art/But-I-got-an-A-Mommy-Olga-81386892**

* * *

Down at the river's wharf, Olga and Helga stood leaning over a railing, as Helga gazed off into space as they awkwardly exchanged words.

"Look Olga, we've just swept everything that goes on in our house under the rug for years," Helga said, "It's obvious we're never going to get right about it, so why bother if none of us can face the truth?"

"Helga, please listen," Olga said, "I've wanted to open up to you since last summer… about everything. I just never know how to talk to you. I realize we have very little in common, but I still want to try."

"Uh huh." Helga said, "How do you even know we don't have anything in common? What do you even know about me? I mean, we've been through this before. You only ever want to get to know me from an academic perspective, because of some psychology course you've taken on sibling relationships, like I'm some subject for you to study…"

Helga had fully expected Olga to refute that claim, but to her surprise Olga said nothing, and just looked at her sadly and lowered her head.

"You're right." she said.

"I'm what now?" Helga chuckled mockingly.

"You're right. I've tried to form a sibling bond with you before, but it's always been for the wrong reason." Olga said, "And because of that, I've always looked at you as just my baby sister, in title only. I never stopped to really look at you as… well, as Helga." She paused, "Until…"

Helga couldn't believe it, but Olga was crying. Not that crying was anything out of the ordinary for her; Olga was notorious for pulling the waterworks whenever she didn't get her way or something threatened to burst her happy little bubble, but that always seemed largely manufactured and fake. These were honest tears, as if Olga was working through something genuinely painful and devastating.

At last she continued, "When we were all prisoners at Lasombra's camp, and you and your little friends were lost in the jungle I had a terrible moment when… I thought that I would never see you again. I thought I had lost you, and…" she choked up, "And the worst part was that I realized… I had never really found you in the first place…" Her voice had been getting higher and higher and was now squeaking in falsetto, "I just can't bear the idea of losing you again… before I really find you… I just want so badly to find you, Helga!"

Bawling, Olga leaned over and buried her head on Helga's shoulder. Helga stood in a dumbfounded stupor, unsure of how to react.

"I understand why you don't trust me Helga…" Olga sobbed, "And I don't blame you… I promise I only ever had good intentions even if they were fundamentally flawed but… oh I just ruin everything between us!" Olga again started wailing with her head buried in Helga's shoulder, and Helga was quite sure she heard her blowing her nose into her sleeve as well. "I can't believe I once thought that story of your bedwetting saga would be inspirational for your classmates! How stupid is that?"

Helga groaned, recalling the time Olga had been the student teacher for their class. In an attempt to encourage Stinky not to give up on his academics, Olga had regaled the entire class about Helga's personal struggle with wetting the bed until age seven. In hindsight Helga was amazed she had allowed Olga to keep living beyond that moment. Still, everything she was hearing from her now sounded completely genuine. Annoyingly, she could almost hear the sanctimonious voice of Arnold in her head telling her to give Olga credit where credit was due.

"I don't know what's worse…" Helga said at last, as she patted Olga's head, "What you just said, or the fact that I'm strangely touched…"

Olga looked up at her and smiled, looking rather proud of herself for getting through to her. Helga believed her sincerity, but knew it was impossible for Olga to not also feel enormous self satisfaction for every little thing she got right in life. In this instance, she could forgive it.

"Oh Helga, I do want to make things right. I want you to find happiness, and now that you and your little boyfriend are-"

"Hey!" Helga shouted, "Who told you?"

"Oh Helga-"

"If you 'oh Helga' me one more time I might throw up…" Helga warned, "And I'll aim for you…"

"Oh Hel- oh, I do say that a lot don't I?" Olga caught herself, "Sorry… sort of an automated response, I suppose. Well, you can't hide those things from me. I know how it is. I remember how it was to be young and in love. I saw the way you looked at Arnold when we were in San Lorenzo, and the way he looked at you…" She again started speaking in her squeaky voice, "So precious…"

"Uh huh." Helga bit out, "Fascinating. Yeah. Things are just ducky in that department. But we're not here to talk about that are we?"

"Right…" Olga sighed, "We have to talk about the… pink elephant in the room…"

The two sisters looked at one another in silence, without any blissful denial from Olga or snarky comebacks from Helga they didn't know quite how else to communicate.

Olga at last said, "Helga. This may be hard for you to believe but… there was a time before you were born that… things were worse." Her voice sounded solemn and serious as Helga had ever heard, "Much, much worse…"

Back at the beeper emporium, Arnold peered through the glass door. The Patakis, a family with so much to hide ironically did live in something of a glass house now. He couldn't see anyone about, but knew someone had to be home. This was a place of business after all, so he didn't feel a large amount of guilt just walking through a front door displaying an 'open' sign.

"Helga?" he called out, "You here? Hello?"

The store gave off a haunting and somewhat creepy vibe. The displays of beepers had gathered dust and cobwebs and the whole showroom looked like some kind of ancient ruin. Out of the corner of his eye he caught a flash of movement. Looking in that direction Arnold saw someone emerging from behind the couch near the beeper display.

"Arthur?" Mrs. Pataki called out, "Oh hi there… no… no it's… Arnie…no Arnold… oh yeah, hey Arnold…"

Arnold could feel the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He knew full well of Mrs. Pataki's specific issues, having heard an earful from Helga on multiple occasions, but seeing it up close and personal and all by himself filled him with a certain dread.

"Oh, hello Mrs. Pataki." he said, "I was just looking for Helga."

Mrs. Pataki started stumbling over in his direction with open arms, "Oh Arnold… you're such a little sweetie… c'mere, gimme a big hug…"

Completely perturbed now, Arnold jumped back and felt somehow in danger. Unlike her husband Mrs. Pataki was at least a nice person, if not always dependable, but that woman wasn't here. This was someone else entirely, and someone Arnold didn't trust. In her attempt to hug him she missed him entirely and hugged the display of beepers instead, which promptly came crashing down all around her.

"Um… that's okay I should…" Arnold took a step backwards.

"Oh don't be shy, Arnold. You know, you've done such wonders for my little girl… she's just so happy nowadays…" Miriam slumped back down onto the couch, "Well, as happy as she's capable of being, anyway… oh, she always used to have such a big frowny face all the time and now she's always bouncing around all dreamily like she's in… like she's in… what's the word? Love? Aw, I remember when I was young and in love… oh you're such a little sweetie Arnold… don't get married too young… you'll regret it…"

Arnold took note of the glass on the table before her, with a few large empty bottles next to it.

"Mrs. Pataki…" Arnold asked, "Did you drink… all of this?"

"Wha- this? Oh it's just a little eyeopener, trust me when you're grown up like me looking at the ruin your life has become this stuff is gonna be your best friend in the world…" She slowly stood up and wobbled, "Arnold… thanks for visiting but we're closed now…"

With her eyes fixed on Arnold's, Miriam seemed to nonverbally scream for help for one instant. Suddenly the light went out of her eyes, and she collapsed onto the coffee table which shattered beneath her dead weight.

"Mrs. Pataki!" Arnold ran over to her and tried to shake her awake, getting no response. He looked at the empty bottles on the counter as his eyes went wide with terror. Arnold felt at the woman's wrist, finding that she still had a pulse. Arnold quickly dashed over to the store phone to dial for emergency services.

Helga and Olga stood still leaning against the railing along the river. Olga had begun pouring her guts out to Helga, who reacted with wide eyed discomfort.

"They shouted…" Olga said somberly, "The two of them just shouted all the time… I was only a little girl… and I always felt so scared and helpless. All I could do was smile and try to calm Daddy down…"

Helga didn't have a hard time believing this.

"Um, Olga?" Helga said, "Dad still shouts all the time… he was born without an indoor voice."

"Don't interrupt, Helga," Olga said, unusually sternly, "It wasn't like it is now. It was…" she inhaled deeply, "Mommy used to have a lot of fire in her." Olga said somewhat admiringly, "Daddy would yell at her and she'd just give it right back to him. I was too young to understand it but… Mommy had dreams in life. She had a lot of potential. When I was very little it wasn't always just Daddy shutting her down, no, she used to yell at him for ruining her life… Mommy still had ambitions in life, and it made her angry that Daddy stood in the way of those. That's how it was at first, and I don't remember when it started but eventually she just started to… shut down." Olga shivered, "And thus began the smoothies."

Helga nodded.

"I didn't mean it when I said that started after you were born, Helga, I'm sorry… that was a bad joke. I think Mommy was just trying to numb herself and forget her dreams… but at first they made her angry too… and once she even…" Olga got choked up again, "Said she regretted… having…"

She didn't need to say any more. Helga hadn't expected to hear that. Helga had long suspected that she herself hadn't exactly been on the agenda when she joined the family, so to speak, but never suspected in her darkest dreams that Olga could feel similarly.

"And I knew even then she was just angry and didn't mean it but…" Olga covered her mouth, unable to speak.

"I thought you were always the golden child." Helga said. "They've always been proud of you. Kind of to an insane degree… you know, you being such a winner and all."

Olga took a deep breath and straightened up, gazing off over the river. She closed her eyes and spoke very slowly, saying something she had clearly never told anyone before.

"That all started one day when I came home from the first grade, with the first A+ I'd gotten on a test." Olga said, "I was so happy… but then I found Daddy yelling in Mommy's face and she… she was crying. I didn't know what to do but I just stood there until they saw me."

"Yeah?" Helga asked, now on tender hooks. "What happened?"

"I showed them my grade and they…" Olga took another deep breath, "They stopped yelling at each other. Stopped looking at each other, and all their focus went to me. Both of them just started congratulating me… calling me their perfect little girl and saying how happy I made them both… because I was a _winner_…" She had said that last word with such bitterness it gave Helga shivers.

As she considered the subtext of Olga's story, something deep inside Helga suddenly died. She had felt nothing but resentment and jealousy towards her sister being lauded by their parents since before she could remember. Her entire perspective on Olga had just undergone a massive shift on the scale of tectonic plates shifting deep beneath the earth and causing earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis. She hadn't even heard the whole story, but she had a feeling she knew exactly how it was about to end.

"From that moment on…" Olga said, "I had to be perfect. I had to keep winning at everything. I had to. I had to keep their attention off one another… just to keep things… together…"

Helga said nothing, but took Olga's hand in hers. Olga turned and looked at her little sister who was fixing her with a look of deep understanding.

"Helga…" Olga said, "I don't know who I really am… I haven't known who I am since I became… a 'winner'…"

"Well…" Helga said softly, "Let's find out. If you're looking to find the real Helga, there's plenty I can tell. And we can find the real Olga while we're at it."

"Oh Helga…" Olga abruptly threw her arms around Helga, who for once in her life didn't protest. Helga closed her eyes and felt a tear run down her face as she hugged her sister back. She had experienced fleeting moments of empathy with her big sister before, but never like this. This moment had a feeling of permanence as if the two of them had finally had some kind of breakthrough. The entire city seemed to fall silent as the two of them held each other lovingly, even the distant sound of an ambulance siren had no impact as they felt their two spirits at last connecting.

"Come on." Helga said, "Come with me to Arnold's. He's always got sage advice for just about anything. We can start there."

"Helga, he's a nice boy but he's only twelve." Olga said, "I'm-"

"Oh, trust me you will be amazed…" Helga assured her as she dragged Olga by her hand, "There's a reason a jerk as big as me loves that boy…"

"But, what about mommy?" Olga asked.

"Oh, she'll be fine without us for an hour or two." Helga insisted, "Look, we'll go get some unfounded life advice from Arnold, I'll pooh-pooh it, then later realize that he was right, we'll do as he advised and everything will turn out satisfactory with Miriam. Trust me, there's a certain rhythm to this."

When the sisters arrived on the stoop of the boarding house, the front door flew open to reveal Arnold's mother standing there beaming at them.

"Welcome Helga!" Stella exclaimed, then turned to see she wasn't alone, "Oh, and you're… Olga right?"

"Heya, Stella how's it going?" Helga asked.

"We're just so glad you're joining us this evening, it's always a delight." Stella wrapped her arms around Helga. Suddenly she stood up and glanced around in confusion however, "Wait, where's Arnold?" She asked.

Helga and Olga looked at one another. "I thought he lived… here?" Helga quipped. "Did he move out?"

Stella shook her head, "No… he left a while ago. He said he was going over to walk you back over here."

"Oh." Helga said, "We uh, must've missed each other. I was on my way over but then got a little sidetracked." She pointed a thumb at Olga, "This one. I swear. Can't let her go anywhere alone."

Stella smiled at Olga, "Well, we should have plenty of food so you're of course welcome to stay. I just hope Arnold gets back soon."

"Oh, if he went back to the store I'm sure mommy would have told him that-" Olga was abruptly cut off by the sound of her phone ringing. Reaching into her pocket she pulled it out, "That's odd… I wonder who this could be… excuse me."

Olga stepped down off the stoop and answered the call, "Hello? Yes this is Olga Pataki."

"So what's cooking?" Helga asked Stella, "I could eat a horse… and I will too, if that's what you're-"

Suddenly, the sound of Olga's phone hitting the pavement cut Helga off. Both Stella and Helga spun around and looked in Olga's direction. She was standing with her hand still frozen in place as if holding up a phone that was no longer there, and looking straight ahead in complete shock.

"Olga?" Helga asked, "What's wrong? What? Did school call? Did you finally get a B+ or something?" she snickered.

Olga just continued to stare straight ahead in silence. Without a single word, the look in her eye alone filled Helga with the kind of fear she had never felt before in her life.

"Olga…" Helga said with quiet intensity, "What's going on?"

Finally Olga started to quietly murmur the same words over and over, "Mom… mommy…?"

* * *

_**Well... I hope that wasn't too heavy for any of you my dear readers... because, strap in, it's about to get a lot worse. Still, at least the sisters Pataki just had a breakthrough, right? Well... Olga has finally shown her humanity a little, but with that is going to come years of pent up aggression... and things are about to get ugly...**_


	5. Chapter 5: Goodbye Mother Dear

Arnold sat brooding in the hospital waiting room, kicking his feet back and forth unsure of what to do. There was of course little he could do in this scenario, apart from what he'd already done in calling the ambulance that had brought Mrs. Pataki here, yet still he felt a desire to do something, if he could only figure out what. His natural instinct was to help, almost to an obsessive point beyond human reason, but for once in his life he couldn't think of a thing he could do. He knew the hospital had called her family members, and apparently got no response from Big Bob, but then had called Olga, so he figured she'd show up before long. Arnold thought of Helga, and couldn't imagine what kind of grief this situation would bring her when she found out, of course he had no idea where she even was.

He didn't have to wait long to find out. Kicking open the door, Helga burst onto the scene, her eyes ablaze with the sort of anger Arnold had never seen even from her. Following close behind her came her sister Olga and to Arnold's surprise his own mother.

"Helga! I'm sorry!" Arnold leapt out of his chair and ran to her, "I'm so sorry, I just found her all-"

"Okay, where's the lush?" she demanded, "I'm gonna kill her if she's not already stone dead-"

"Baby sister!" Olga shouted angrily, "Don't call her that!"

"Oh shut your mouth you delusional dimwit! Don't call me that!" Helga shouted, "I hate when you call me that! It's your stupid enabling that brought us to this!"

Arnold stood to the side of the two screaming sisters, unsure of what to do. His mother approached him and placed her hands on his shoulders, trying to smile reassuringly at him, but he could see the fear in her eyes too. Normally he'd be the one to step in and mediate a situation between two fighting parties, but this was unlike anything he'd ever seen. Sure, one angry Pataki girl was frightening and not easy to console, but now there were two of them. Worse, he'd never even seen Olga angry before, and the dread it filled him with rivaled that of the fear Helga's rage often inspired. Helga was accustomed to venting her anger, whereas Olga by contrast looked as if she was about to unleash a lifetime's worth of pent up aggression.

"Me?" Olga shouted back, "This is all your fault! If you hadn't stormed out like that… if we had just gone back home this never would have happened!"

"Me?" Helga hissed, "You're the one who left her alone in the first place, dummy!"

"Because of you!" Olga screeched, "Because of your little episode, you selfish, spiteful little drama queen!"

Everyone else in the waiting room stared, and the hospital staff looked as if they wanted to intervene but were similarly frozen with fear.

"Oh, you're one to talk!" Helga shot right back, "Little miss perfect! Why did you ever have to come home anyway? No one asked for you to be around! Everything is falling to pieces enough without you dropping in to just make it more annoying!"

"I had things in this family under control before you came along!" Olga shouted, "Before you made us all even more miserable than we were!"

"I HATE YOU!" Helga screeched.

"I… I…" Olga burst into tears, and she threw her arms around Helga who struggled in her sister's grip.

The two forces of nature before them had Arnold, his mom and everyone else too petrified to move. They had all basically just witnessed two human category five hurricanes coalesce into some perfect storm, but mercifully it had all dissipated before it killed everyone in its wake. Still, the emotional damage seemed to have been done.

"I hate you!" Helga repeated, sounding tired and broken down, "I hate you! I hate… you… I… hate…" Her words slowly lost their intensity as her voice became increasingly wobbly.

"Shh." Olga hushed her, "It's okay… it's okay… if you have to hate me right now it's okay… I'm sorry Helga. I'm so sorry, I didn't mean it… I didn't mean it."

Helga finally pushed Olga off of her and turned back to Arnold. Stella walked over and placed her hands on Olga's shoulders, trying to calm her down, but the girl buried her head in her hands, clearly wracked with deep shame for what she had said.

"I'm sorry, Helga." Arnold said in a quiet voice.

"Psh, it's not your fault Miriam can't stay off the sauce, football head." Helga said, trying to regain her bravado, "Now where is she?"

"She's in the emergency room… Helga I'm so sorry, I can't imagine how you must be feel-"

"Oh I think you've seen a pretty clear picture of how I'm feeling." Helga frowned, "Cut the sympathy. It's Miriam we're talking about."

"Well, yeah. She's your… your mother." Arnold said, looking over at Stella, "I know I'd feel-"

"Yeah. I know you would," Helga said, "Because you have a mom worth caring about."

"Helga…" Stella said sternly.

Arnold knew by now Helga was one to lash out in anger whenever she was hurting deep inside. Against his better judgement and self-preservation, Arnold threw his arms around the girl and held her in a tight embrace.

"Hey!" she shouted, "What do you think you're-"

"Helga, I know you better than this." Arnold said, "I know this isn't really you talking. I know your mom's not perfect but… you can drop the tough act."

Helga scowled and growled like an enraged animal, but Arnold wouldn't let her go. Eventually he could feel her tense body start to soften as he held her tight.

"It's like the way you used to be mean to me because you liked me… maybe it's just easier to be mad at her?"

Helga nodded slowly. She realized that amid all the fighting and carrying on she had all but forgotten the reason they were here.

"Is she… gonna be okay?" Helga whispered.

"I don't know." Arnold sighed, "We haven't heard anything."

Suddenly Olga appeared behind them, kneeling down she wrapped her arms around Arnold and sniffled.

"Thank you, Arnold…" she said, "Thank you for taking care of her…"

Arnold smiled at her, but then felt slightly confused.

"Um, Helga, or your mom?" he asked.

"Yes." Olga replied, apparently to both in question as she pulled Helga into the same hug. The three of them were joined by Stella who stood over them and put her hands on Olga and Helga's shoulders reassuringly. They all remained perfectly still and silent, all equally unsure of what to do. All they could do now was wait.

The next hour that followed the little emotional display from the sisters Pataki passed in complete silence, as both girls sat in the waiting room chairs either glancing through magazines or staring blankly into space, but constantly avoiding eye contact with one another. Arnold and his mom too had no words of comfort to offer them, and sat nearby, only looking at one another helplessly now and then. The nurses would occasionally update them on Miriam's condition, which apparently was remaining stable though she had not yet regained consciousness. Noticing people who had witnessed her earlier altercation with Olga were now staring, Helga got up and stomped out into the hallway to be by herself.

"Stupid Miriam…" she said to herself when she thought she was alone, "Stupid Bob… stupid Olga." She could feel her eyes welling with tears, but she held them back, then she smacked herself in the face and grumbled, "Stupid, stupid Helga…"

She of course wasn't alone as she thought.  
"Helga?" she heard the soft voice of Arnold's mother say.

"Go away." Helga pouted.

"I understand how angry you must be feeling." Stella ignored her and continued, "This is a lot for someone so young to-"

"Angry?" Helga cut in, "Oh I'm way beyond the point of angry. Right now I'm just considering looking into how old you have to be to get emancipation papers in this state."

Stella frowned at her with a startlingly maternal look.

"Wow…" Helga actually felt slightly afraid and started rambling, "I guess that's what you'd call a 'mom' look… I wouldn't know of course, Miriam could never be bothered to even scold me. And you think with all the crap I've pulled in my life something would've eventually gotten her attention, but nope."

"Helga," Stella said, "After what you did for our family, Miles and I like to think of you as…" She stopped herself, choosing her words more carefully, "Well, we're very fond of you, Helga. Please. Let me help you."

Helga looked at Stella blankly. She wanted to open up to her. Stella and her husband may have been slightly crazy after what they'd gone through, and yet Helga had an easier time trusting them than either of her own parents. Still, there was some nagging undeserved feeling of loyalty she felt towards her own family for reasons she couldn't explain even in her own mind. Still, aside from loyalty out of obligation all she felt for them in the moment was unbridled rage.

"Wanna help me?" she asked, "You can start by getting Olga to join the Helpers for Humanity so she'll leave for San Lorenzo and never have to darken my days again."

Stella sighed and shook her head disapprovingly. Helga had only been half kidding, but didn't expect any other kind of response.

"You know, I haven't spoken to my own sister in over ten years." Stella said.

"You were asleep in a lost civilization in the middle of nowhere for ten years…" Helga retorted.

"Yes, but…" Stella paused, "I guess that is basically the entire the reason we became estranged, so to speak, but still… we were very different when we were girls. She liked to put on makeup, dress up, and I just wanted to play in the mud, throw rocks at things, and hit boys… and we didn't exactly play together much, but when you get older Helga, you might realize that our siblings are all we have in this world."

"I'd say you'd got a bit more than that…" Helga scoffed. A strange thought suddenly occurred to her, and she asked, "Your sister… didn't happen to have a weirdo kid named Arnie did she?"

Stella looked at her strangely, "She… she did. I still haven't met him but… yes, we both named our boys after our father. We didn't really have a chance to coordinate that…"

"Yeah, I wouldn't bother. If you've met a parking meter you've pretty much met Arnie," Helga said, "Anyway, you were saying something about sibling bonds? Yeah… Olga and I uh… well we hashed it out earlier pretty good, but… I think we're gonna need a little more time apart after this. Anyway, thanks for the advice, I see why Arnold is so full of crap beyond his years now."

Helga turned and started to walk away but Stella called after her.

"Just so you know, Helga," Stella approached her from behind and placed her hands on her shoulders, "I would never try to come between you and your family, but if you ever feel unsafe in that house…"

Helga looked at Stella with pleading eyes. She wanted nothing more than to take her up on the implied offer, but did feel some reservation about leaving Miriam after what had happened this evening. As she had blatantly told Miriam in the past however, she was the parent, she was supposed to take care of her, not the other way around.

"Excuse me, Miss Pataki?" Came the voice of one of the hospital staff. Both Helga and Stella turned to face him, "Your mother is awake."

Helga turned to Stella who smiled at her and gestured for her to go with the doctor.

"Go on, honey." she said, "Arnold and I will be waiting down here."

Helga smiled, "Rain check on that." And she followed the doctor to the elevator.

When Helga reached Miriam's recovery room, she found Olga already there kneeling at the bed and holding her mother's hand. Miriam was lying down hooked up to an IV and a cardiac monitor beeping rhythmically.

"I'm so sorry I left, Mommy dearest…" Olga sobbed."

Mom?" Helga asked, "Mom are you… okay?"

"Oh, hi Helga… yeah sure, just fine… just a throbbing headache… nothing I'm not used to…" Miriam sighed, "Be sure to thank Arnold, and tell him I'm sorry he had to deal with all that…"

"It's just what he does," Helga said.

"No really, if he hadn't come along… I might've… well…" Miriam trailed off, the looked at her girls. "Olga, Helga… I'm so sorry to put you through this…"

"Uh huh. Heard that before." Helga frowned. "Not to this degree, but still. Heard it."

Miriam looked at her youngest daughter and said, "And I'm sorry for that too."

"Uh huh. That's a step further." Helga shook her head, "But sorries aren't going to solve anything, Miriam."

"I think what Helga meant to say is that all is forgiven, and the important thing is that you're okay," Olga smiled, slowly slipping back into her windup doll state, "Right, Helga?"

"No, Olga," Helga said sternly, "We can't just keep pretending this is all okay anymore! That's what got us here… I just don't get it, mom. Why you do it?"

Miriam considered her next words carefully, unsure how much to unload on a young girl, unaware that Helga had heard an earful from Olga already.

"Well Helga… let's just say that I've been just a little… down recently." Miriam said.

Helga groaned in frustration, "What do you really have to be this depressed about? Sure, I know you had to sacrifice your dreams to have a family, and have been living vicariously through Olga for twenty some years," Olga waved at her mom and gave another forced smile as Helga continued, "You still have everything you need… even if it's rapidly shrinking… but what about me? You and Bob never give me any-"

Suddenly Helga's phone began ringing, as she reached for it she groaned and then looked at the caller ID, and groaned even harder.

"Speak of the devil." Helga sighed, It's the Beeper King."

"Calling to check up on you, Mommy." Olga said sweetly as she clasped her hands together, "How very thoughtful of him."

"Yeah, hello?" Helga answered.

"Olga?" Bob's voice thundered through the phone so all present could hear, "Your mother's not answering her phone and no one's at the store. Where is she?"

"Right here, Bob…" Helga muttered, as she handed Miriam the phone, "And it's Helga!" she shouted.

Miriam took Helga's phone and spoke, "Oh hey B… how was the trip?"

"What do you mean how was the trip?" Bob shouted, "What gives Miriam? I get home from my business trip and I find the place empty! No sign of you or the girl, and worst of all just a half prepared dinner! How am I supposed to rebuild a beeper empire on an empty stomach?"

"Well actually B I'm in the-" Miriam tried to explain.

"And what the heck happened to the beeper display?" Bob demanded, "This place looks like it was ransacked! Don't you ever clean up around here anymore? We're running a home business for criminey sake!"

Miriam stuttered, "I-I uh… well I, there was a little accident, and then I had to go to the emer-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah whatever, no need to apologize, just get back here with the girls pronto! I'm starving!" Bob declared before abruptly ending the call before leaving his wife and daughters in a stunned daze.

A hush fell over the room. Olga avoided eye contact with both of them as she rubbed her arm uncomfortably. Helga locked eyes with Miriam. She'd heard it from Olga, and she'd even seen it before; her dad riding all over her mom without a single care for her feelings, but to see Miriam now so broken and run down, and for Bob to not even show an ounce of concern was devastating to say the least.

"Some things in life you just need to drown out…" Miriam said softly at last.

Helga and Olga lowered their heads in sadness.

"But that's not an excuse." Miriam said, with some newfound vigor in her voice, "Helga… I want to do better… for you. For both my girls."

"Mom…" Helga sighed.

"Oh Mommy…" Olga smiled, and wrapped her arms around her mother, "Yes, we've got tomorrow, who needs yesterday? Every day we have a whole new chance to do things right from now on. Mommy? Will you be staying here tonight?"

"Under normal circumstances yeah," Miriam said, "But I don't think B is gonna be able to cover the bill. Soon as they discharge me let's all go home, the three of us."

"Are you kidding?" Helga shouted, "You were nearly singing with the choir invisible less than an hour ago!"

"Now Helga," Olga said, "Don't you worry, Mommy has the two of us to take care of her. She's going to be just fine. We'll all just go home, I'll smooth things over with Daddy and everything will be back to normal."

Miriam and Olga looked at Helga and smiled, as Olga opened her arms inviting her to join in their family moment. Helga pondered for a moment. Back to normal? Was that really the best they were offering? Helga had long struggled to do the right things in life, but most of the time she had a clear idea of what that was even if she didn't want to do it. This time she had no idea what to do. Helping her mother seemed like the most obvious right thing to do, but where did she draw the line? Thinking back over everything that had happened in the last three days; getting into her mother's smoothie, all the fighting, and now this, it became apparent to her what she had to do. It would be a painful choice, and possibly not even the right one, but it was the only way to make her position heard loud and clear. Helga took a deep breath, looking at her mother with apologetic but decisive eyes.

"I… I want to believe you but…" Helga choked back on tears, "I think I need to be away from the house for a little while."

Both Olga and Miriam were shocked. They looked at Helga with wide eyes and neither of them could speak. Miriam looked at her daughter pleadingly for a moment, but quickly realized she had no case. Olga similarly lowered her head, and seemed to resign herself to reality.

"You scared me mom…" Helga said, "I don't think I've ever felt so scared… but I need to be away from all this. I can stay with Arnold's family. They offered. Y'know, if I wasn't feeling… safe at home."

That word seemed to drive a stake through Miriam and Olga's hearts, but neither of them could find any words to counter with. Helga sadly lowered her head with her eyes closed, and then turned and slowly departed the recovery room. She decided the best she could do to make things at home better was to stay out of it, thus not causing any further damage and making it clear that she wasn't going to put up with the status quo anymore.

After exiting the elevator back on the main floor, Helga slowly walked towards Arnold and Stella who were still standing by the door expectantly. Helga said nothing, but they could tell loud and clear by her expression that she had made the decision to go with them. As she neared them suddenly she heard Olga's voice from behind.

"Helga!" she cried out, "Wait…"

"You're not talking me out of this," Helga said, "My mind is made up."

"You're my sister, Helga. I love you." Olga said tentatively.

Helga fixed her sister with a blank stare. Their relationship had reached some serious highs and lows just in the past few hours, and now she wasn't sure where they stood.

"I know you do," Helga said, in the most adult tone any of the others had ever heard from her, "But this isn't about you. I can't do this anymore."

"I know. And I think you're making the right choice." Olga said.

"No, no, I don't care what you say, you're not gonna- wait, what?" Helga halted, "You… support this?"

"Yes." Olga nodded, "I want you to be where you feel safe, Helga. I'm sure somewhere in your heart you must also want to help Mommy as much as I do but… you're still just a kid. You shouldn't have to shoulder this kind of responsibility." Looking past Helga she called out to Stella, "Thank you, Mrs. Shortman. I know she'll be in good hands."

Helga nodded silently, then turned and walked towards Arnold and his mother who both looked unsure of what to say, but Olga once again interjected.

"I was a little girl, just like you, Helga" she said painfully, "I was afraid too. All I wanted to do was make it through each day… I did what I thought I had to, and I never thought about what they were doing to you… what I was doing to you."

Helga said nothing, but knew Olga was right. The two of them had just been trying to survive in a less than ideal home life, and while Helga still resented her, she knew that Olga too was a victim of their upbringing, and she was wrong to place all the blame on her. She of course couldn't bring herself to say it.

"Whatever." Helga said at last, "Your baby sister will be just fine."

"You're not my baby sister." Olga shook her head, "You're… my Helga."

Helga turned back to Olga, suddenly feeling the impulse to run to her and hug her, but found she just couldn't.

"Olga? I… I… " she breathed deeply as a single tear trickled down her cheek, "See you later…"

And without another word Helga turned and walked away. Stella placed her arm around the girl, and gave Olga a reassuring look as she walked off with her son and Helga.

Olga stood in silence, watching in sad resignation as her young sister exited the building with another family, and one who had been more of a family to her in the few short months she had know them than she or her parents had been in a lifetime. As the sliding doors closed separating her from her sister, she watched them disappear from sight. The burden of having to keep the family together once again fell heavily onto her shoulders, but she did feel some small sense of comfort knowing that her little sister wouldn't have to share that same burden. She realized ironically that may have been the best thing she had ever done for her sister.

The End

* * *

_**The end… but also to be continued. Hope that ending wasn't too bleak… still opens things up for a few Helga living at the boarding house episodes to follow before things work out again. I hadn't planned on this story being as heavy as it turned out, but I guess that's just what happens when you write about broken families, child abuse and alcoholism. I even originally intended for it to end with Helga going home and helping Miriam and Olga but... I saw another opportunity and decided to go the harder route. Now the ball is in Olga and Miriam's court, we'll see how they try to win Helga's trust. Who knows... maybe it'll have to be Big Bob. For those of you who noted he seemed a little out of character in Second Biennial Parents Day, I think I made up for it by portraying him at his absolute worst here.**_

_**Up next however, as briefly hinted at it's going to be a little visit to the country for the Shortmans plus Helga... uh oh...**_


End file.
